Young part of team behind new legal option for children in southwestern Illinois

Former Carmi native Anna (Ackerman) Young is making big strides in the fight to deter crime among children. Young, who is an assistant state's attorney in St. Clair County, which includes Belleville and East St. Louis, joined State's Attorney Brendan Kelly in creating the Children's Justice Division, a new option for children caught up in the legal system.

Former Carmi native Anna (Ackerman) Young is making big strides in the fight to deter crime among children. Young, who is an assistant state's attorney in St. Clair County, which includes Belleville and East St. Louis, joined State's Attorney Brendan Kelly in creating the Children's Justice Division, a new option for children caught up in the legal system. The long-term hope of the newly formed entity is to keep children from heading down a path of crime due to experiences and circumstances faced at a young age.

"Brendan (Kelly) approached me early last year about forming this division," said Young, who graduated from U of I with a degree in accounting before pursuing her law degree. "We worked to get it formed and officially kicked off the program Oct. 1."

According to a recent article in the Belleville News-Democrat, the division will handle child support matters, juvenile abuse and neglect cases, juvenile delinquency, truancy and adult criminal cases where children are victims.

Young noted that sometimes children are not factored into a criminal act by an adult. For instance, if a residence is taken over by police during the morning hours in a drug bust, there are no provisions made for children who may be getting off the bus from school to return to that residence later in the day. The newly formed Children's Justice Division will now offer a solution to situations like this.

The Children's Justice Division will also serve as the centerpiece for all divisions of the legal system to work together for the betterment of children. The hope is to provide an additional avenue early in a child's life that may prevent future criminal acts as the child matures.

The newly formed organization hit home with Young, who became a mother for the first time earlier in 2012. Young and her husband, Matt, are the proud parents of son Jake, who is now five months old. The couple met in law school at SIU. Matt was a third year law student when Young was in her first year. Matt currently works as a plaintiffs attorney in civil law for Kuehn Law Firm in Belleville.

Following graduation from law school, Young began practicing law in the St. Clair County Public Defenders office, a role she held for two and one-half years before switching to the other perspective of the courtroom as an assistant state's attorney. Under State's Attorney Kelly, Young supervises six attorneys and sees and deals with a lot of hard cases, from murder to abuse and neglect cases committed by adults against kids. Her hope is the new division is a first major step toward changing some of the activities of younger offenders in the future.

"I work in the violent crimes unit," said Young. "I see so many young people committing crimes at young ages and also see kids that are affected by adults who commit crimes. This program is going well so far and is a great way for us to coordinate and 'encompass all things kids,' which has sort of become our unofficial slogan."

Page 2 of 2 - Young applauds Kelly for his work in St. Clair County and admits it is hard work, but she feels Kelly is leading them all in a very positive direction when it comes to taking care of children who are caught up in the legal system through so many different avenues. She relies on the team of between 20 and 30 assistant state's attorneys under Kelly's watch to work together and support the new Children's Justice Division.

Young also looks to former colleague Denton Aud for advice. The two graduated from Carmi-White County High School together and attended law school at the same time at SIU. They have remained friends and with Aud taking over as State's Attorney in White County, his input is sometimes valuable to Young.

"We talk every once in a while," said Young. "Since our jobs are so similar, it's sometimes good to compare our work. He's going to be a great State's Attorney for White County."

Young is the daughter of Carol and Art Ackerman of Carmi. She and her family currently reside in Belleville.